Time for San Francisco to get serious about safe streets

San Francisco Chronicle

March 13, 2015

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

John Lowell, on Friday Nov. 7, 2014, who holds a seat on the Pedestrian Safety Advisory Committee, near the steps of City Hall where twenty eight pairs of shoes have been placed to represent the lives lost in 2014 to traffic related incidents. Members of San Francisco's Vision Zero Coalition gathered in San Francisco, Calif., to draw attention to the alarming increase of traffic related deaths on the streets of the city.

John Lowell, on Friday Nov. 7, 2014, who holds a seat on the...

Within one day this week, San Francisco got a sampling of the dangers and solutions to its traffic-clogged streets. An 87-year man crossing ever-busy Geary Boulevard in the Richmond District was struck and killed, a fatal mishap followed the next day by Mayor Ed Lee pushing a painting machine to put down safety stripes on another Geary crosswalk.

The death underlines the familiar results when drivers and pedestrians face off on the city’s wide, bustling streets. The fatality, though, was only the first of the year, and comes at a turning-point moment for residents, traffic planners and lawmakers all wondering just how far to go to make streets safer.

Officially these groups are on the same page. In November, voters approved a $500 million bond measure with a major slice going to street safety touches ranging from traffic lights to curb extensions. On the same ballot, a plan to kill transit policies targeting private vehicles was shot down.

Already the first steps are there to see. There are red-painted Muni-only lanes on Market and other streets. Curb bulbs to highlight crosswalks are going in at dozens of corners. Speed limits are dropping near schools and along speedster allies including Sunset Boulevard, where past fatal accidents have occurred.

The goal couldn’t be clearer. Pedestrians, buses and walkers will benefit over drivers, who will have to slow down and watch where they’re going. Already, the mayor’s office says police are writing 50 percent more traffic tickets, and, yes, bike riders are getting their share.

Backers of the street safety plan known as Vision Zero want even more. Nicole Schneider, executive director of Walk SF, says the plan’s goal of no pedestrian deaths by 2024 needs serious enforcement. The city may have the money to improve its streets, but it needs the right attitude, she notes. A go-slow warning sign should be upgraded to a blinking warning light, she suggested as an example of how to strengthen the message.

This push may not come easy. Polk Street merchants are upset over plans to chop off parking slots for a bike lane. Drivers still puzzle over the thicket of plastic stanchions protecting bike riders and leave tire marks on traffic islands that have sprouted recently. It’s a learning journey behind the wheel.

But San Francisco is headed in a promising direction. Its crowded, dangerous streets are getting attention at last, and that should make everyone safer.